The first tag I chose to use for this post is #discussion. I chose this because the post is (a) going in the discussion community, and (b) I'm hoping that the topic I'm bringing up will be discussed.

The second tag I chose for this post this #tags. Because, after all, this is hopefully going to be a discussion about tags.

The third tag I chose for this post is #cats. Because, after all, cats are featured heavily in the imagery of this post and I keep a cat blog. Hence, cats is a relevant tag to this post.

Shangri is watching you!

Do you see where I'm going with this?

I recently returned to Blurt to resume this blog after a long absence.

Since this is — in a manner of speaking — a social content site, it would seem that one of the primary functions would be for people to connect with the sort of content they're interested in. But how do we do that?

Certainly one of the gold standards for that this is the use of appropriate tagging. That is, using tags that substantially — or even minimally — identifies what you're writing about, or vlogging about, or sharing, or announcing.

It's not rocket science, right?

Our Nala enjoying a bit of sun

Content Discovery and Community

Posting this was motivated largely by some time I spent yesterday trying to locate cat related content on Blurt and finding other users who sporadically or periodically post about their pets.

Starting out with the approach of searching different tags I was very surprised to find that there are practically no pet lovers on Blurt!

Of course that's not actually true. There are lots of pet lovers on Blurt! Not only that but there are quite a few pet related posts on Blurt.

But here's the thing: I couldn't find any of them until I finally sat down and spent a really long time scrolling down through the new posts feed.

So what is the problem? And what is it I want to discuss?

The stairs are a fun place to play!

The appropriate use of tags, and how they are essential for community growth because they facilitate content discovery!

You see, most of the posts I finally managed to find — after dedicating a lot of time to ”content mining” — were all tagged either with a long string of tags serving no purpose other than to call curation services, or they were tagged completely irrelevantly or inadequately.

I just don't see how that is useful. I recognize that the Blurt community is all about freedom to do whatever you want, but if you care at all about the longevity and success of the community — as a place where you can actually thrive while having the freedom to do whatever you want — perhaps we need to more regularly openly have discussions about appropriate tagging!

Standoff over string

Use Your Tags Wisely!

Let's face it. You get eight tags if you're posting from the blurt.blog front end; ten if you're posting from a dApp like BeBlurt or Actifit. Why not do yourself the service of using at least three to four of them to make your post relevant, in some fashion, to other community members who might actually be interested in what you're posting!

After all, most vibrant communities become vibrant communities because people can find what they're actually interested in finding! Moreover, the whole idea of "community" stands and falls on the concept of people being able to connect with each other over similar or compatible interests.

And if you're truly "just here for the money, consider that you'd probably make more money if people had an easier time finding and following your posts!

Watching the rain from behind the screen door!

Let's Discuss!

So what do you think? Do we need to up our game in terms of tagging here on Blurt? How do you use tags? Could you do a better job? Do you even fully know or understand how tags work and what their primary function is? Would Blurt benefit from improved content discovery?

Thank you in advance, and I look forward to hearing what other people have to say about this!

PS: You'll not that I used two more tags relating to blurt and tags, two more relating to cats, and only three that are "curation related."

=^..^=

2025-02-19 16:05 PT
No. 64 of many more to come!
All images are my own!